nonentity

English

Etymology

non- +‎ entity

Noun

nonentity (countable and uncountable, plural nonentities)

1. an unimportant or insignificant person
   • 1834, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Francesca Carrara, volume 3, pages 201-202:

     The Queen Mother detests, but she dreads me—my uncle is indifferent, but finds me of use—our new Queen is already a nonentity—and Louis knows that my house is the most agreeable in Paris.

   • 1973, Patrick O'Brian, HMS Surprise, →ISBN:

     But I am not the penniless nonentity I was when we first met; I can offer an honorable if not a brilliant marriage; and at the very lowest I can provide my wife – my widow, my relict – with a decent competence, an assured future.

   • 2000, J.K. Rowling, quoting Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, →ISBN, page 203:

     Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley. It's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?

2. (uncountable): the state of not existing; nonexistence
   • 1831, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Romance and Reality, volume 3, page 201:

     New objects, new amusements, will occupy her mind; and unhappiness, equally unsuspected and unspoken, will die of its own nonentity.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:nonentity

Derived terms

• nonentitize
• nonentityism

Translations

an unimportant or insignificant person

• Bulgarian: нищожество (bg) n (ništožestvo)
• Czech: nýmand (cs) m
• Dutch: schertsfiguur (nl) m or f
• Finnish: nolla (fi)
• French: moins-que-rien (fr) m or f
• Icelandic: smámenni n, núll (is) n
• Italian: uomo da niente m, zero assoluto (it), nullità (it) f, estraneo (it) m, sconosciuto (it) m
• Maori: mōri
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: null (no) n or m

  Nynorsk: null n or m

• Polish: miernota (pl) f
• Russian: ничто́жество (ru) n (ničtóžestvo)
• Slovak: niktoš m
• Swedish: nolla (sv)
• Urdu: ادنیٰ m (adnā)

nonexistence — see nonexistence